Barcelona clamp down on Lamine Yamal activity – event cancelled | OneFootball

Barcelona have decided to intervene in Lamine Yamal’s life off the pitch, in an attempt to ensure their star forward is focused on the game. The 18-year-old’s comments before El Clasico backfired, ensuring the Real Madrid players were extra motivated to win the match, and the feeling is at the club that Lamine Yamal is ‘too exposed’ to the public.

The teenage star has never shown anything but confidence in the public eye, even as a 16-year-old with the Spanish national team. However since he turned 18, he has been much more active on social media, attending public events, traveling during breaks, and is now one half of a celebrity couple with Nicki Nicole. Even before his comments against Real Madrid, Barcelona met with his agent Jorge Mendes to agree to keep a closer eye on his activities.

Lamine Yamal cancels PR event on Tuesday

As per Sport, Barcelona have decided to monitor his activity, and Tuesday he was due to attend an event with Oppo, a Chinese mobile phone brand, for whom he is an ambassador. However that event was cancelled, as corroborated by Marca, with the club feeling it was not the best idea.

Image via David Ramos/Getty Images

Lamine Yamal to reduce public appearances

The club are keen for Lamine Yamal to appear less often in public, feeling that it could be beneficial to reduce distractions. The 18-year-old agreed to cancel the event on Tuesday, conscious that his words had created a media storm, even if his feeling was that it was overblown.

Barcelona will require strong characters

It is a topic that has been raised some time ago, with some wondering about the wisdom of placing the public spotlight so intensely on a teenager. The Spanish national team were the first to begin public interviews with Lamine Yamal at just 16, and since, he has been treated more or less as any other superstar. It is surprising that Barcelona were not already monitoring his activity off the pitch though, and more than club supervision, Barcelona will hope that they have sufficient character in the dressing room to advise him.